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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

‘3 million social journalists in country and gaining strength’

By Amar Guriro

KARACHI – Pakistan has over 3 million social journalists and the
number is increasing with the passage of every day with 6.2 million
users on microblogging site Twitter and over 4 million social network
Facebook users already. This was observed by top bloggers, twitteraties,
netizens and other experts from Pakistan, Indonesia and Egypt at
Pakistan’s first international social media summit jointly organised by
the US Consulat in Karachi, PC World, Intel, iRaffles Systems, Newsweek,
CityFM89 and the Express Media Group.
Apart from prominent Pakistani bloggers including Raza Rumi, Awab Alvi,
Sana Saleem, Naveen Naqvi, A.J. Shirazi, Imtiaz Muhammad, Ali Abbas
Zaidi, Shehrbano Taseer and Yasser Latif Hamadani, some international
bloggers including Mohamed El Dahshan (Egypt), Hanny Kusumawati and
Anandita Puspitasari (Indonesia), Rebecca Chia (Egypt) Ong Hock Chuan
(Malaysia), Claire Diaz Ortiz (US) and Karim Osman (The Netherlands)
also participated at the summit. Addressing on the occasion, US Consul
General in Karachi William Martin said Pakistan is one of the
fastest-growing Facebook- and Twitter-using nations in the world with
the official data revealing that it is the ninth nation which uses
Twitter the most.
“There are over 4 million Facebook users here while the US Consulate
Karachi’s Facebook page has over 30,000 fans,” he added. “The per capita
internet-access rate in Pakistan is between 10 percent and 15 percent
of the total population – more than double that of India and even at the
most conservative estimates roughly 20 million Pakistanis are online –
equivalent to the population of 4 Singapores.
“Pakistan has a lively, active blogging community, where over 3 million
citizen-journalists can freely report on and discuss any topic.
“During the last year’s floods, I saw the social media network shining
the light on this situation and many others,” said Martin. “The social
media really does create a global village and it is an honour to be here
with so many distinguished citizens. I am struck by the talent, the
imagination and the commitment I see. You all validate, you all energise
my enthusiasm, my optimism for this great nation Pakistan. From where I
stand, the future looks bright. I see leaders and visionaries that will
help realise the vast potential of the Pakistani people,” he said.
Talking on press freedom in Pakistan, the US Consul General said the
freedom was earned over time through the sacrifices of people especially
the media community. “We must never forget the journalists who were
killed or injured as they sought to report on the challenges facing us
today. They have been as brave, as selfless as any soldier on the
battlefield. I know that there are people here today that take
extraordinary risks to enlighten us all of the truth. Nobody embodied
this commitment more than Saleem Shehzad, who was senselessly murdered
trying to pursue this truth. But there is no doubt that his work will
continue and others will pick up the baton and carry on.
Renowned journalist Kamal Siddiqi said that social media is the best
platform where different social problems and taboos can be discussed
easily, which are not being reported by the traditional media.
“Recently the Pakistani media has started utilising citizen journalists
and blogging on their websites,” he said, “I believe that social media
will not disturb traditional media, but it will help the media to get
information rapidly.”
Sherbano Taseer said the social media has created an online arena where
people can talk about the grievances about their governments – referring
to the Arab uprising.
“During the Japan earthquake and tsunami, for many people Twitter became
the mode of sharing news with their family and others. Just imagine
that the videos put up by common people in Japan followed by the tsunami
received 17 million views in one night,” she added.
On a question, Taseer said the social media is overtaking the print media in Pakistan.
Different panel discussions under the title ‘Education and Good
Governance: Going Digital’, ‘Women and Social Activism in the New Media
Era’ and ‘Monetizing your Social Media Space’ were also held during the
summit.

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